PHOTO: The Author, next to the map of Liberia
By Hun-Bu Tulay
To fully understand this feature, you need a review of Liberian History. Some of the information you are about to read is found in books you might not have read, and nobody has discussed them near your hearing.
Thousands of years ago, this land was inherited by three groups of people consisting of the Malika language speaking people (the Mandingo, the Konos, and the Vais); the Kpelle speaking group (the Buzzi/Lorma, the Mendi, the Gbandi, the Mano, the Gio and the Maa and Kras); and the Kidua (the Kru, the Bassa, the Gbrebo and the Deis). These different groups formed Federations, and each Federation had a leader and several assistants called chiefs. These leaders controlled the territory agreed upon by their neighbors. During this period before the coming of Europeans and the ex-slaves from the United States, there were minimum conflicts amongst these federations. The land was stable and peaceful most of the time.
Three hundred and sixty years before the coming of the founding fathers of Liberia—the ex-slaves—, the Portuguese explorers established contact with these groups. The explorers found an abundance of “Grains of Paradise” (Malagueta Pepper). They gave the name “Grain Coast ” to the land. Malagueta Pepper seeds in the 1400s had the same value as gold and they were the principal item of trade at that time. The Grain Coast extended from present day Cape Mesurado to Cape Palmas. These people traded with the Portuguese in Malegueta pepper and other tropical items but not slaves. Along the Gulf of Guinea, areas were named by Europeans according to the items of trade. For example, present day Ghana was named Gold Coast and Slave Coast (Cape Coast Region). They were involved in slavery that is the reason you can find a slave frontier in Cape Coast today. Even in Senegal, near Dakar, you find a Slave Frontier. Because there was no slave trade between the three groups mentioned above, you cannot find a Slave Frontier on the coast of Liberia.
However, whenever there was a war between different federations, there were captured Prisoners of War (POWs). These POWs were treated well and later they assimilated and were accepted as part of the community. Therefore, many Gbandi, Lorma, Kpelle people, etc. can be found in present day Grand Cape Mount and Gbarpolu Counties.
These people had a well-organized administrative structure and code of conduct which governed their behaviors and actions. The Portuguese explorers described these people as industrious, intelligent, friendly, supportive, and protective of their interests. The Portuguese explorers had no problem with them, they respectfully and peacefully traded with them. This is confirmed by Chevalier des Marchais, a French Agent who visited the Grain Coast in 1725. He described the inhabitants on the Grain Coast as “Of large size, strong and well-proportional. Their mien is bold and martial, and their neighbors often experience their intrepidity as well as their Europeans who attempted to injure them. They possess genius, think justly, speak correctly, and perfectly know their interests, and recommend themselves with addresses and even with politeness. Their lands are carefully cultivated, they do everything with order and regularity; they labor vigorously when chosen. Interest simulates them strongly, and they are fond of grain without appearing so. Their friendship is constant”.
The above account is from Dr. Hamilton, Johnson, Liberia (Appendix on the Flora of by Dr. Otto Stapt; 28. Three hundred-sixty years after they established contact with the Portuguese and ninety-seven years after Chevaleir des Marchais’ visit, the Elizabeth arrived with the first eighty-eight immigrants from the United States. Unfortunately, they did not do sufficient research about what was supposed to be their new home before coming or even after they arrived. Because, if they had done so, their approach to the inhabitants of the land they settled in would have been different.
They were unable to appreciate the culture of the people they met. They looked upon the indigenous population with pitying contempt. Expression such as “Our poor benighted brothers” was common in newspapers and living rooms of the settlers. Direct intercourse, in Dr. Edward Wilmot Blyden opinion, would have enabled the immigrants to understand more of their brothers’ lives and qualify them to suggest and gradually introduce reform that would have been beneficial to both parties. In this regard, when he was appointed president of Liberia College in 1800, Dr, Blyden revised the College’s curriculum to include three Liberian languages and Arabic because he wanted direct communication between the immigrants and the people in the Western Mandingo Federation.
He realized that these people would read and write Arabic. Because of this, Dr. Blyden was removed as president of the college. Read “A Short History of Liberia College and University of Liberia”, by Dr. Advertus A. Hoff. For the immigrants, anything African was primitive (dress code, names, language, etc. and only sons/daughters of immigrants were good for certain positions (Foreign Affairs, Finance, Economic, Education, Information etc.) in government. This attitude of the settlers continued into the late1970s.
Even when Dr. Edward Beyan Kesselly was appointed Minister of Information, Cultural Affairs, and Tourism of this country, he confided in those close to him, including this author, that for the first three weeks on the job, he received calls advising him to resign because the position was not for a native/Mandingo man.
Original Reason for the Establishment of the American Colonization Society (ACS) The Objectives of those who founded the American Colonization Society was to establish an American Colony in Africa. Below is a quote from Liberia, Bulletin No. 14, February 1899, p. 6. “The fairest and most inviting opportunities are now presented to the General Government for repairing a great evil in our social and political institutions and at the same time for elevating from a low and hopeless condition a numerous and rapidly increasing race of men who want nothing but a proper theater to enter upon the pursuit of happiness and independence and ordinary paths, which a benign providence has left open to humans.
Those great ends, it is conceived, may be accomplished by making provision for planting in some salubrious and fertile region a colony to be composed of such of above description of persons as may choose to emigrate and for extending over its authority and protection of the United States until it shall have attained sufficient strength and consistency to be left in a state of independence.” The government of the United States of America did not buy into this approach. After the founders failed on this front, they wrote a document and gave it to the immigrants andasked to use the same reasons for leaving the United States of America. Below are the reasons they claimed were for leaving:
- That they were shut out from all civil offices.
- That they were excluded from participating in government.
- That they were taxed without their consent, by a government which did not protect them, give them education and no freedom of worship and speech.
- That they were made a separate, distinct class of people and every avenue of improvement was effectively closed to them.
From the above reasons, it was hoped that the immigrants or the founding fathers of the country would have treated the inhabitants far better than they were treated in the United States. Unfortunately, this was not the case. They treated the inhabitants worse than they were treated. They believed that the indigenous had no rights. Ninety percent of the land they acquired was taken forcefully, driving the indigenous from their homes, by disputing their title to it as by issuing a proclamation. This method of acquiring the land brought conflict between some chiefs and the settlers. The indigenous fought back. Two chiefs that stood against this method were Gotolo and Katuba. They fought the settlers for many years. Most of the uprising in those days in Liberia at that time were because the settlers wanted to expand and felt that it was their right to the land. The indigenous in return resisted and protected their land. Read “Short History of Liberia “by Ernest Jerome Yancy and Advertus A. Hoff mentioned above. The issue of land conflict is as old as the country.
Deception and Fibbing number one
The deception and fibbing of the founding fathers have to do with the reasons for leaving the United States and how they treated the indigenous after they were welcomed by them. The way the indigenous were treated was well documented in the dairy of an American Judge (Judge Steward), who visited Liberia in the late 1800s. In the dairy, the Judge wrote “The African Freeman was treated as if he had no rights which were worthy of respect. He was defrauded, beaten, made to feel like an interior being excluded from churches, schools and made to enter the house from the back door. Their dogs were treated better than the indigenous.” Read Nnamdi Azikiwe book “Liberia in World Politics”.
Treatment of the indigenous described by Judge Steward can be supported by one of the former Presidents, Daniel E. Warner, when he delivered a speech to his compatriots in 1866 in Monrovia. He said to them, “But these chiefs and their subjects have undoubtable certain rights both natural and political which should be respected by the government and its people. And when this is done, and the natives are not provoked by us to the commission of lawless deeds, or instigated by dishonorable men to insubordination, there will subsist between us and them a permanent good understanding and the greatest cordiality of feeling.” Liberian History “Historical Light of Liberia’s Yesterday and Today” by Ernest Jerome Yancy.
President Warner’s warning was repeated to the settlers in 1882 by H. R. R. W. Johnson, who proclaimed: “We have a population numerous, hardly industrious devoted to agriculture and manufacture, and when seduced by the demon of war. I mean our aboriginal brothers.”
The quotes from former Presidents Warner in 1866 and Johnson in 1882 clearly show that the immigrants knew that they were not treating the indigenous properly. This is what we call deception because they said and wrote one thing and acted perversely.
The Deception and Fibbing number two (Story of Edward James Roye Liberia’s Greatest President, who was demonized by the mulattoes)
Who was really Edward James Roye? There are many things’ Liberians of today and even yesterday do not know about the fifth President of Liberia, Edward James Roye. President Roye was the first President of Liberia that graduated from college with a B.Sc (Bachelor of Science Degree) in Business Administration) from a University in Ohio and he arrived in Liberia on his own ship. He was a businessman, and he operated a shipping company in Liberia. He became one of the richest, if not the richest person in Liberia at that time. Before being elected President, he served as Representative and later became Speaker of the Legislature.
He served as Chief Justice of Liberia. He was a good reader and was in sympathy with the indigenous as well as understood how the indigenous were treated by the Mulattoes. He was in the audience, when the former President Daniel E. Warner delivered the speech of 1866, in that speech, the former president warned his compatriots against the maltreatment of the natives something if they had done, would have avoided what happened in Liberia in April 12 and 22 1980.
He had read the narrative of Benjamin Joseph Knight Anderson’s first expedition to Masardu and the opportunities that were there for the country, particularly in terms of trade. In the narrative, Mr. Anderson indicated the potential of mineral resources in the Western Mandingo Federation Region. At the time, the French had not reached this region and the Mandingo King was a very close friend and relative of Samory Toure, the king who resisted France’s occupation of present-day Guinea. The Western Mandingo Federation’s King like Samory did not want white occupation of his land. According to Anderson’s narrative, he was interested in friendship with the government of Liberia.
Edward James Roye and a group of dark-Skinned immigrants founded the True Wing Party and the party participated in the General Election of 1869. The Party carried Edward James Roye and James Skivring Smith as Presidential and Vice-Presidential candidates. They won the election and were inaugurated on January 3, 1870. As they took office, the country was in the middle of political instability which was exacerbated by a fiscal crisis. Roye inherited an empty treasury from President Payne. Remember that Roye and his friends founded the True Wing Party, and this was the first election the Party was participating in and fielding candidates. Majority of the founders of the True Wing Party were of darker complexion. The President and Vice President were of darker complexion. The mulattoes, who were members of the Republican Party would not accept a victory for the True Wing Party. The results were shocking to them. To make matters worse, Roye unfolded his development plan which included the following:
- Expansion of the influence of the government to the interior as far as the Western Mandingo Federation Capital (Masardu)
- Construction of schools into the interior for the indigenous
- Construction of roads connecting the interior to Coastal cities
- Establishment of a Central Bank
Upon revealing the plan above, the mulattoes got frightened because no President before Roye had ever ventured in such a direction. Roye was revolutionary and innovative. Immediately upon the revealing of the plan, the mulattoes began planning to remove the True Wing Party Government from power. The mulattoes first tried to remove Roye after the results of the referendum, which called for the amendment of the tenures of the president, senator, and representatives from 2 to 4, years for president and members of the house of representatives and 4-8 years for the senators were announced. According to Roye, the provisions to amend the terms of President (from 2 to 4 years), Senators (from 4 to 8 years) and Representatives (from 2 to 4 years) had been adopted. But the mulattoes said the voters rejected the amendment.
As a result, the House of Representatives prepared a Bill of Impeachment against Roye, charging him with high treason. But the House of Senate refused to take up the proceeding owing to formal defects in the proceeding in the house. After the Senate’s refusal to hear the case of impeachment, Roye was charged with misappropriation of public funds. The jury (all mulattoes) brought in a verdict of guilty on February 11, 1972. Roye was deposed and sent to prison. Now the question is, was it legal to charge Roye for an act committed while he was President? Under the 1847 Constitution, the answer is a big “NO”. Let us examine some facts surrounding President Roye‘s death.
According to some Liberian Historians, Roye shawled the loan of 1871. Remember that Roye was first charged with high treason and an Impeachment Bill was prepared and sent to the House of Senate for his impeachment. The House of Senate rejected it. They charged Roye and William Spencer Anderson (Speaker of the House of Representatives) and head of the 1871 loan for misapplication of the loan. They were tried independently. Anderson was acquitted but was shot by a mulatto while he was leaving the courthouse. There is no record that showed Anderson’s killer was arrested. Roye was later tried, and the Mulattoe judge found him guilty and was sentenced to jail. According to some historians (mulatoes), Roye escaped from prison and had money around his waist as he swam to a Kru canoe with the hope of reaching a British ship.
Now the questions you need to ask yourself are these. Did Roye have money with him while in prison? When Roy escaped as claimed, did he go to his house to collect the money they claimed was tied to his waist? According to the Political and Legislative History of Liberia, page 1133, “The populace retorted by sending a cannon ball through the President’s house.” This implies that President Roye’s house was destroyed. Those who killed Roye created the story that he drowned after escaping jail. In fact, according to the Legislative and Political History of Liberia, the most authoritative history on Liberia, the exact date of Roye’s death is not clear. The facts surrounding the death of Roye was never written by the Mulattoes. But if Anderson was shot and killed, what do you think happened to Edward James Roye? According to Dr. Edward Wilmot Blyden, who was an eyewitness to the event, he wrote that Roye was taken from jail and dragged in the streets of Monrovia and later shot on present day Ashmun Street, where presently stands the True Wing Party building. Why did the mulattoes fabricate the drowning story and the stolen money? This is simply because they wanted future generations to picture Roye as a corrupt and wicked President. But what is the real reason for Roye’s death? To understand why Roye was killed, let us examine what happened to William David Coleman. President Coleman was elected 25 years after Roye.
Like the late President Roye, Coleman had read Anderson’s three narratives of the expeditions to Massardu. Like Roye, he was impressed and wanted the government’s presence in the interior as far as Masardu, because like Roye he was convinced that the future of Liberia depended on the exploration of the resources described by Anderson. As soon as he introduced his interior policy (expanding the government influence) into the interior, this was again opposed by the mulattoes, 29 years after Roye was murdered. Coleman’s friends advised him that if he did not resign; the mulattoes would do to him what they did to Edward James Roye in 1871. William David Coleman resigned as President. And because of this, the Liberian Government never extended its influence into the Mandingo Federation Region.
As a result, the government lost approximately 50% of its land area in the late 1800s to the French and the British governments because these countries extended their influence into most parts of the Mandingo Federation Region and today the richest parts of Guinea, Sierra Leone and Côte d’Ivoire are in these countries. If only the mulattoes were farsighted and innovative like Roye and William David Coleman, Liberia would be twice its present size and three times richer than it is today because all of Mount Nimba, the rich diamond mines in Sierra Leone and the oil rich part of Côte d’Ivoire would have been in Liberia.
But because of the likes of Joseph Jenkins Roberts and others, who did not want a darker skin ruler, Liberia lost valuable land areas. In fact, did you know that during the Presidency of Joseph Jenkins Roberts at the Liberia College, no darker skinned student was allowed in the college. Read Nnamdi Azikiwe’s book, “Liberia in World Politics”. Another deception on the part of the founding fathers.
DECEPTION and fibbing #3 (Education-Better over the past four years than 2017?)
In February 2022, a Minister in the present government said the Liberian students’ performance in the West Africa Senior Secondary Certificate Examination under this government was better than that of the previous government. What is your take on the Minister’s statement? Before you respond, let us look at what constitutes a pass for an award of the WASSCE Certificate to a student. The subjects in the examination fall into three groups as follow:
- Core Group (core or compulsory)
- Mathematics
- English Language
- Social Science
- General Group
- Economics
- Geography
- History
- Science Group
- Biology
- Chemistry
- Physics
Entry Requirement
All students for the examination are to enter for a minimum of eight subjects and maximum of nine subjects from the three groups. A Certificate is awarded to only successful candidates. To qualify for a certificate, a candidate must pass in at least six subjects including the core (compulsory) and at least a subject each from the other two groups. This means that if a candidate fails in any subject of the Core Group, that candidate does not qualify for a certificate. Likewise, if a candidate passes all Core Group subjects but does not pass at least one subject each of the last two groups, that candidate does not qualify for a certificate.
The WAEC Monrovia Office uses two terms in her press releases. These words are ‘Successful’ and ‘Clean’. These words mean that the candidate does qualify for WASSCE.
Now let us look at the statistics from 2016 to 2021. The table below gives a summary.
Table of Summary of WAEC Performance Statistics
| years | Total Sitters | % of Passes | % of Failures | Comments |
| 2016 | 46,927 | 51.54 | 48.46 | |
| 2017 | 31,009 | 59 | 41 | 180 schools’ students received 100% pass |
| 2018 | 33,125 | 34.85 | 61.15 | |
| 2019 | 39,580 | 21.32 | 78.48 | Students in 46 schools failed all subjects. |
| 2020 | 41,535 | 5.41 | 94.48 | 39,000 students’ results withheld because of fraud and irregularities |
| 2021 | 40,977 | 33.13 | 66.82 |
To confirm these statistics, go to the WAEC website.
Did the Minister review these statistics before making his comments on the performance of the students? Why are we Liberians deceptive and fibbing? We are not helping ourselves with these deceptive and fibbing statements. If a patient/client lies to his or her medical doctor or lawyer, it will be difficult to help such a client or patient. Likewise, if we lie to ourselves, it will be difficult to improve this country. We are lying about everything in this country.
If we can only acknowledge our situations, we will be one step closer to finding solutions. The Sirleaf Administration acknowledged its failure in one of the critical areas (Education), when the former president said it was a MESS and then began developing strategies to make it better, as evidenced in the statistics above.
If we must develop this country over the next two hundred years, we need to start now by being truthful and not wasteful. The country’s budget must be people friendly. The Legislature should allocate resources in areas that will generate more resources for sectors like education and agriculture. We as a nation have failed to do this over the past almost two hundred years.
Let us be wise, innovative, truthful to ourselves and the rest will be history. Let us make the country a magnet in Africa; but to do this, the people must be honest, hardworking, committed, industrious, and willing to acknowledge failures.